Page 2

North Salem, New Hampshire

Present Day

–Storm–

I STIRRED AWAKE from my reoccurring nightmare of the day I lost most of my family, not in fear but determination, knowing I would soon come face to face with my monster.

I would have no choice.

“But you do have a choice, lassie,”

Adlin MacLomain said softly, catching my thoughts from where he stood in front of a snowy window in the living room of the old Colonial Uncle Conner had purchased to keep me and my cousins safe. Adlin’s typically merry light blue eyes were grave when they turned my way where I’d dozed off in one of the chairs before a crackling fire. “You could go to Callum instead of your monster. You could finally—”

“No.”

I shook my head. “I won’t put him in that position and make life more difficult for Ceara than it already is. She’s been through enough.”

Giving Adlin a pointed look, I made myself clear. “And I certainly won’t risk the pups not having Callum’s unwavering devotion as their father, whether he sired them or not.”

It didn’t matter that I had been aware of Callum for longer than I could remember, and my draw to him had increased a thousandfold since I was bitten and turned wolf nearly two months ago. The pups had to come first. Born of Tadc—who was also my ancestor via my bite—and Callum’s former mate, Ceara, the pups would become more powerful than most. So, keeping them out of Tadc’s hands was crucial because they were the future of the Wolves of Ossary.

And the future needed the stability and protection only Callum could offer.

We might be fated mates, but it didn’t matter. Not if it meant providing the family unit the pups needed and ensuring Ceara grew strong again by Callum’s side after being so terribly abused by Tadc. They would do that together, too. I knew it like I knew I had been at the heart of the storm that led me to this very moment.

Callum had to shun me, and I had to shun him.

Given there were over a thousand years between us, it should be easy enough…or so I hoped. Prayed. If not, the pack war my cousins were at the heart of unfolding in medieval Ireland might be lost, and everyone’s futures destroyed.

Therefore, Callum would stay with Ceara, and I would follow my path.

One I had seen long before Niall, Tadc’s descendant, had turned me.

There were some grey areas, shadows of what was to come hidden from me, but I knew my path led back to my monster. It led straight back to Tadc.

“This is pure foolishness,”

Adlin muttered under his breath, sighing. Done pretending to be our realtor, he was now firmly who he actually was. A Scottish wizard in long white robes cinched at the waist with a white beard, determined to help my cousins and me navigate a curse we hadn’t asked for.

Yet a curse I had known was coming all the same.

Could I have warned my cousins years ago? Probably, but I doubt they would have listened. My oldest cousin, Kaia, thought she needed to protect me, so she’d worked her butt off teaching various forms of martial arts around Boston, all of which she taught me and my other cousin Naya. And Naya? After the accident, she did everything she could to crawl out of the projects we grew up in and became a successful corporate real estate agent.

While it took a lot of hard work and determination, it hadn’t hurt to have connections with the Irish mafia that became a part of our world when the boat sank and took our parents with it. Now, after ending Niall and recruiting a portion of his Boston Wolf Mafia pack and making them their own, Naya and her mate, Bain, were back in medieval Ireland with Kaia and her mate, Tréan.

All were rallied around Callum and his castle.

“Whether it’s foolish or not,”

I said, replying to Adlin’s comment and frustration, “I’m not joining everyone at Callum’s castle.”

I shook my head. “And you know full well why.”

I glanced out the window at the setting sun. One I knew would soon set in medieval Ireland and rise, like this one, on the day of the next full moon. “I can’t risk being near him during my True Moon Shift.”

“Nor can you risk remaining here any longer, lass,”

came a gruff masculine voice with a Scottish brogue before my best-kept secret appeared at the doorway and frowned in my direction. “Not when you know Tadc is coming and intends to become your sole pack, which means he will own you for the rest of your life.”

Even though I tried to frown because this was the last place Broderick should be, I couldn’t help but smile and race into his waiting arms. Could not help but squeal in delight when he laughed and gave me a good spin before setting me down, holding me at arm’s length, looking me over, and offering the kind of grin that had broken many a heart.

“’Tis bloody good to see you, my friend.”

His dragon eyes flared with approval. “It has been too long.”

“It has,”

I managed, biting back emotion because I had begun to wonder if I would ever see Laird Broderick MacLeod again.

If I would ever see the dragon who had saved me the day I lost my parents.

Tall, broad-shouldered, and handsome with thick ebony hair and deep, dark sea-green eyes with flecks of sage, Broderick was from medieval Scotland and about as related to me as Tadc was via the bite of the wolf. So, barely at all. A distant ancestor, he was far too many generations removed to be considered family.

“Why are you here?”

I asked, amazed by how he always seemed to know when I needed him despite the centuries between us. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Especially not in clothing that looked more suited to medieval Ireland than medieval Scotland.

“But I should,”

he countered, brushing away a tear I hadn’t realized had fallen because, deep down, I was glad he was, even though it was far too dangerous. “Just as I was that fateful day so long ago.”

We would never understand why he’d been there that day, pulling me from the terrible suction of a boat now resting on the seabed, only that he had because, fortunately, his dragon wings were powerful enough to fight the deadly current. Everything after that had been a blur, and I was saved from the turbulent sea by a rescue boat, but it wasn’t the last time I saw Broderick over the years. Rather, he had become a good friend, visiting every so often, mostly in dreams, and we grew up together in the unlikeliest of ways, with over six hundred years between us.

“This is too dangerous, Broderick,”

I forced past my lips because the idea of him going down the road I knew I had to travel with him by my side took some sting out of my fear. Stepping away, I lost my smile and shook my head. “Go home. Go back to Scotland and your clan.”

“I tend to agree.”

Adlin scowled at Broderick and released another uncharacteristic sigh before pulling him in for a tight embrace. “’Tis good to see you, lad.”

Holding him at arm’s length, Adlin narrowed his eyes, slipping deeper into his brogue. “The MacLeods might be longtime allies of my MacLomains, but do ye ken the risk ye’re taking traveling to medieval Ireland? To an era hundreds of years before yer own? To a time of wolves that fear ye enough to—”

“I know, Adlin,”

Broderick said softly, vehemently, making clear he would stand by my side as long as he could. Fire flared in his eyes. A determination I knew all too well. “Storm and I are there for each other. ‘Tis how it is.”

As far as I knew, he had only ever been there for me and not the other way around, but Broderick had said it a time or two over the years, so I knew I’d done something for him my inner dragon witch kept from me.

I forgot to mention that, didn’t I? Just like I had kept it from my cousins. Having descended from the MacLeod clan on my mother’s side, I carried not just the gift of witchcraft or wizardry, depending on who you asked, but I possessed dragon blood, too. Strangely, I couldn’t shift into one like Broderick and most of his clan, but I could manipulate fire because it was, without a doubt, my element.

My other gifts varied.

Sometimes, I could see into the future. Other times, I could muddle people's thoughts if it suited me. It had proven invaluable in Southie keeping away men’s unwanted advances. I’d also used it on my cousins a time or two, which tended to leave them thinking I was batty as hell, as Naya would put it.

Since being bitten, things had begun changing inside me that even I didn’t understand. I hadn’t shifted during my second True Moon Shift like all newly bitten wolves did, so I was an enigma, even to Adlin, one of the most powerful wizards ever born. However, I gained some clarity during the black moon after it. The few short nights before the new moon, when the sky is completely dark.

That clarity told me I had to steer clear of Callum for the sake of the pups and the Wolves of Ossary and make my way to Tadc.

“Clarity, your enemy very likely had something to do with,”

Broderick said, following my thoughts as only he could, and now Adlin. At least, that was the case until my cousins and I turned wolf and started catching each other’s thoughts. They could only follow so much of mine for now, but I imagined that would change as time passed because we were blood, even though we didn’t run together during our True Moon Shift.

“Whether Tadc did or didn’t have something to do with my certainty that I needed to go to him,”

I replied to Broderick, “I can’t see any other alternative. If I don’t go, he’ll come to me to ensure I shift with him, and I won’t risk that happening here or anywhere near the Wolves of Ossary. Especially not near the pups.”

I gave my friend a pointed look, ensuring he understood what was happening. “While I know you're stronger than most, you’re not strong enough to take on Tadc and the army he’s building, even if you are higher on the food chain than him.”

“I’m strong enough if standing by you and your new pack,”

he countered, getting that stubborn look I knew all too well. “Because they are your pack whether I like it or not.”

A flicker of sadness crossed his face that I hadn’t expected before he hardened his features. Or maybe I had expected it deep down in a place we never discussed. An underlying attraction I’d always known could not go anywhere. Not since the moment I saw wolven eyes stare down at me from the fiery waters of my near tomb. Not just Tadc’s eyes, but another’s, just as fiery as the water and just as desperate to get to me, even though he never did.

Instead, Callum had hovered in the corners of my subconscious. There but not there. A ghost of things to come and things to lose. A hot whisper over my skin that turned my dreams erotic, only for me to awake in despair. Again and again, over and over, until there was nothing left but the certainty that I couldn’t have him.

In the end, I would be alone.

It would mean the end of the Wolves of Ossary if I were not.

“No.”

I shook my head again at Broderick. “I don’t want you there because I won’t be with the Wolves of Ossary but with their enemy, and there’s no reality where Tadc will let you anywhere near him or his pack.”

And if he did, it could only ever be for nefarious reasons.

I frowned, reminding him of what could happen before I went on. “We both know he was there the day I lost my family, and it was a bonding experience made of pure terror and unnatural things. A terrible day that tied the three of us together somehow, so there’s every chance he could have some sway over your dragon. That happens, and we’re all in big trouble, plus your clan’s down a chieftain.”

“A risk I’m willing to take if it means keeping you out of his clutches because ‘twill be a nightmare for you, and you know it,”

Broderick said without hesitation, perking an eyebrow. “And we both know ‘twas not three but four of us who bonded that fateful day. And the four of us must see this through.”

“Make that six,”

came a gruff, all-too-familiar voice from the darkened hallway behind us before Uncle Conner emerged. A beautiful warrior-like woman with silvery blonde hair who appeared to be around his age, undoubtedly the Wolf of Ossary’s Gráinne, emerged alongside him. “Did you really think I’d let you face this shit on your own, peanut?”

“Uncle,”

I exclaimed, relieved to see him as he pulled me in for a tight hug.

Uncle Conner wore his token biker boots, jeans, and a black leather jacket. Despite his former high rank in the Boston faction of the Irish Wolf Mafia, he refused a high-end haircut. He kept his white-streaked, thick, dark brown hair longish and sported a five-o'clock shadow.

He was only a kid himself and already sucked into a life of organized crime when he took in me and my cousins after our parents died, but with Kaia’s help, he had done the best he could. Although he’d always been protective and loved us equally, I knew he had a special spot in his heart for me because, to his way of thinking, being the smallest and weakest of the lot, I needed more protection than the others.

He had always liked that I circled the norm like him, too. While he loved Southie, he hated the life he’d been sucked into but still climbed the ranks anyway to keep me and my cousins safe. And me? I hated the city and never did well around people, mostly keeping to myself, and he understood that. Respected it, even.

In typical Uncle Conner fashion, he grunted an introduction to Gráinne—the closest thing to a matriarch the Wolves of Ossary had right now—and then locked narrowed eyes on Broderick. “I know you.”

I didn’t blame him when his wolven eyes flared, and his tone grew threatening. Broderick wasn’t just huge but half-dragon. Any wolf could sniff that out. “How do I know you?”

Uncle Conner was by no means small and had a sizeable build despite being in his early forties, but Broderick was larger and, again, the alpha in the room.

“You know him because I know him, Uncle,”

I said gently, standing close enough to Broderick to clarify I trusted him as I introduced everyone. “Broderick has been my friend for a long time.”

I met Uncle Conner’s wolven eyes, so he saw the truth. “He saved me the day I should have died, pulling me to the surface so I could be rescued.”

“Because he’s half dragon,”

Uncle Conner murmured despite Broderick keeping his inner beast from his eyes. Yet my uncle had sniffed it out and saw it through our growing wolven connection. “He saved you when no one else could.”

“Yes.”

I nodded hello to Gráinne, who took in Broderick without the wariness one would expect. Then again, she was part of a pack that had raised a Viking dragon girl, so maybe she felt less threatened. Or, more likely, because she was a tough sort who could hold her own given the multiple blades strapped to her body and her calm, cool way of assessing people, she simply wasn’t easily intimidated.

“’Tis an honor to finally meet you, Conner.”

Despite his own esteemed position, Broderick dropped to a knee, allowed his dragon eyes to flare, and lowered his head in the way of wolves. “Many thanks for raising and caring for my good friend, Storm.”

Before my uncle could respond, Broderick rose and resumed a steady stance by my side, his dragon eyes still flaring. “With your permission, I will remain by her side and protect her until she’s safely with her fated mate, Callum, and not with your enemy Tadc.”

He shot me a look before locking gazes with my uncle again. “Which is bound to take longer than I had hoped.”

“Permission granted,”

Gráinne said without hesitation, nodding at Broderick with approval.

“Permission asked of me, not you, Gráinne,”

Uncle Conner ground out, his eyes still locked on Broderick as he decided how much he trusted my Scottish friend, who was clearly as much a warrior as him. So said the multiple weapons strapped here and there.

“Yet permission that should have been granted right away,”

Gráinne countered, narrowing her eyes at my uncle. “Hesitation will get you killed. We have talked about this.”

“I fucking well know what hesitation will do to me, woman,”

he grunted, casting Broderick a curt nod of approval before scowling at her. Or was he flirting? It was impossible to tell. “I thought I made that clear last night.”

What had happened last night? Suspecting I knew, I bit back a smile.

“I thought so, too.”

Gráinne’s eyebrow swept up, and although she challenged Uncle Conner with her wolven eyes, I didn’t miss how her cheeks flushed or the scent she put off. One that had everything to do with my uncle. “Yet here you are wasting time doubting a much-welcomed ally.”

Uncle Conner responded, but I didn’t catch his words when everything silenced around me as it sometimes did, matching the deadly quiet of sinking into the sea. Moments later, the fiery water above flashed in my mind, and dangerous wolven eyes arose, narrowing in on me with such evil intent a chill shot up my spine.

“It’s time to go,”

I whispered, feeling Tadc drawing closer before the vision snapped away and my surroundings returned to normal. I looked at Adlin in warning. “He’s coming.”

“Then I will let you go, my new friend,”

he granted, his eyes flaring light blue with his inner magic. “Under one condition.”

If I had learned nothing else about Adlin, he possessed the power to stop all of us if he wanted to.

“What condition?”

“That you don’t go directly to Tadc,”

he replied, “but remain with those who mean to protect you whilst I buy you time. ‘Twill not be much because Tadc is no fool—”

he looked at Gráinne— “but ‘twill be enough that mayhap you can keep Storm away from both Tadc and Callum at least for now.”

“I told you the only way to handle this is for me to go to Tadc,”

I argued, certain it was the best course of action. If I gained his trust, I could defeat him when his guard was down. Then, I would return here and live out my days in New Hampshire, leaving Callum and his new family in peace.

Unfortunately, it seemed my thoughts weren’t as protected as I believed because everyone caught them and understood my intentions.

“I know a place,”

Gráinne replied to Adlin. She narrowed her eyes at me. “And you will be going to Tadc over my dead body because you do not understand the beast you deal with, but I do. So you will agree to Adlin’s condition, and we will leave now.”

When I frowned at my uncle, wondering if he would back me, he shrugged, clearly no help. “Sorry, peanut. I agree with her.”

“As do I.”

Broderick shrugged as well when I turned my frown on him. “And ‘twill also be my dead body on your hands if you go to Tadc.”

“Then we’re all in agreement.”

Adlin ushered us toward the door without me agreeing to his condition. “Farewell and travel fast, my friends. I will see you again soon enough.”

“But,”

I denied as I was all but shoved out the front door, “I never agreed to…”

I kept talking, but a gusty wind blew up, thunder cracked overhead, undoubtedly created by Adlin, and my pointless words were lost to everyone’s ears.

What wasn’t lost was a long, telling, deadly howl that didn’t just send shivers up my spine but thrust me on the most terrifying and exhilarating adventure of my life.